John Dubrawa

Profile

I’m a late start to the horror movie scene. It’s not that I didn’t watch horror movies when I was a kid and hid under the covers during the scary parts, I just didn’t start appreciating the artistry behind the films until just recently. Since that time, however, I’ve fully immersed myself in the genre: I’ve been to horror conventions, started collecting memorabilia, gotten two themed tattoos (one of Freddy Krueger and one of Jason Voorhees with more to come), and had dinner with the one and only Gunnar Hansen.

"You like that kind of stuff?" That’s the most typical reaction that I receive whenever I tell someone that I write horror movie reviews. I don’t know if it’s a reaction to the genre in general or if it has something to do with me. I’m a twenty-something College graduate (nearly) that works at a theme park sitting behind the desk of a cubicle wearing collared shirts and slacks. I’m not what people expect a horror enthusiast to look like, but then again, did Damien look like he could be the Devil’s demon spawn? Okay, bad example, but hopefully you catch my drift.

As well as being a horror fanatic and somewhat of a buff, I’m also big into film in general, hockey (the New Jersey Devils, how fitting), comic books, and Star Wars. When I’m not starting longingly at the two eight-foot tall banners for the film "Freddy vs Jason" that I have hanging in my den, I’m either out with friends, playing video games, or writing. I’m currently majoring in Film with a minor in Creative Writing, so my mind is usually on my writing. One day, I’ll be making a living out of watching movies and critiquing them.

Sean S. Cunningham's Friday the
13th openly defies originality, borrowing
liberally from John Carpenter's Halloween and Alfred
Hitchcock's Psycho, but succeeds in spite of it. Although
far from being the paradigm of the genre, the film nevertheless paves
a succinct pathway through its boogeyman tale, striking a few
familiar notes of its predecessors while creating its own unique
beats along the way. It's a slasher flick stripped down to its most
primal vices-sex and violence-and Friday the 13th
unflinchingly bathes the audience in copious amounts of both.
(read more...)

Call it an irrational fear, but wax figures give me the creeps. I recognize the artistic talent behind each of these seemingly lifelike sculptures, but the features have an off-putting radiance that resounds uncannily with me. Thankfully I must not be the only one with unease toward these waxworks given the effectiveness of André De Toth's House of Wax as a horror film. Building off the premise of 1933's Mystery of the Wax Museum, De Toth's remake similarly melds elements of mystery with images of the macabre into a satisfyingly frightful elixir.(read more...)

It's
perfectly natural to want to cringe at the mere thought of a Night
of the Living Dead remake — one shot in full color no less — but
hear me out: Tom Savini's 1990 version of Night of the Living Dead does a
respectable job of reworking George Romero's 1968 classic to a fit
more modern archetype. Well-known for his make-up effects (on
films such as Friday the 13thand Romero's own Dawn
of the Dead), Savini
understandably leans toward a more visceral revision to the already
ghastly classic.(read more...)

All
the right pieces are in place for Cannibal
Girls to be a
schlocky, comedic gem: a pre-Ghostbusters
Ivan Reitman at the helm, the fresh-faced tandem of Eugene Levy and
Andrea Martin in the lead roles working with a mostly impromptu
script, and a cheesy "warning bell" gimmick that alerts viewers
of a particularly gruesome death sequence. Yet the potential wallop
that Cannibal Girls
packs with its one-two punch of dark comedy and B-movie cheese never
quite hits the intended mark. Despite the simplicity suggested in its
title, the film's plot is unfocused at times and further mired with
pacing issues. Though the humor provides temporary reprieve from the
listless pace, the comedic bits are few and far between and typically
hit-or-miss. Suffice to say, Cannibal
Girls is
middle-of-the-road schlock horror.
(read more...)

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Month. As is apparent
in the structuring of its title, Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is
more concerned with building a franchise out of its titular villain
than it is crafting a continuous chapter in Chainsaw
lore, and the resulting film struggles to find balance between being
both a remake and a sequel to Tobe Hooper's original.
Admirers of the first film will have no trouble spotting the twists
and turns of David Schow's script, which treats Hooper's original
screenplay like a road map, stopping at all the familiar spots along
the way to a dissatisfying conclusion. To his credit, director Jeff
Burr tries to inject his been-there-killed-that film with copious
gore expected of a movie with Texas
Chainsaw Massacre in
its title (ironic since the original film had little red stuff to
show), but New
Line Cinema's vigorous
cuts prevent the film even from being enjoyed on a primitive level.
What's left is a gutted, castrated version of the original Texas
Chain Saw Massacre.